On 10 October news of a
deadly terrorist attack in Ankara, Turkey made headlines across the world. The target was a peaceful demonstration organised
by some syndicates and the People’s Democratic Party (HDP).
The HDP is a recent party connected with the terrorist group PKK, whose leader
is in prison but had started peace talks with the government of Erdoğan.

At the last election, the HDP was passed the threshold of 10% to gain seats in parliament, while the ruling party Justice
and Development Party (AKP) was not able to win majority
for the first time. Erdoğan was unhappy with
the results of the election, and the relations between the AKP and the Kurds inevitably soured.

The HDP stopped Erdoğan's of becoming President with more powers. In order to achieve this he needs a big majority to change the Turkish Constitution in his
favour. The relations between AKP and the Kurds further deteriorated after the Suruç attack, a small Turkish
town close to Kobane in Syria. The Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) accused the AKP of supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and of making nothing to protect its citizens, and with this the peace talks
ended.

PKK attacked some Turkish militaries and
policemen and the AKP started a manhunt for PKK members. This also led to the
opening of the Turkish airbases for the US led coalition. Turkey has been
attacking PKK bases on Turkish territory and on Syrian and Iraqi
territories, and Turkish airplanes has attacked ISIS targets. It is
truly a complex situation
that Turkey is currently experiencing.

Many towns in Turkey were destroyed during the clashes between the Turkish Army and the terrorist group PKK. Cizre was one of these towns, which had been under curfew for a few days due to the heavy clashes. The HDP
leader, Selahattin Demirtaş, talked to
journalists after the Ankara attack accusing the interim government of doing nothing
to protect its own people.

As usual, when there is an attack in Turkey the
social networks are blocked by the government to try to stop information from getting out of the country, but internet users have found ways to overcome this blockade.

In response to the attack in Ankara, which caused
almost 100 deaths, many peaceful demonstrations are being held to show support
for the Kurdish population and to show the Turks' disagreement with AKP's politics. I went to one in Paris to make a photo reportage. As always at demonstrations there were different groups of people voicing their support for their causes or expressing their dissatisfaction; in
this case some people at the demonstration were calling Erdoğan a murderer, while some were supporting the terrorist
group PKK and an autonomous Kurdistan.